Assembly Line Healing

More people are undergoing surgery in Europe than ever before. Germany is at the top of the list with almost 20 million procedures per year, twice as much as France. In Germany alone, health care costs eat up 290 billion Euros, which equals about 12% of Germany’s GNP. The same is true for France. But did medical treatments also get better? Who is in charge of quality control? The term „evidence based“ medicine has been established for a few years now. Medical treatment should be based on experience; studies, statistics and numbers were always the benchmark of medicine. This has prevailed in practice for the most part. If you don’t follow the rules and regulations, you run the risk to be sued later on. But there is significant opposition against this „bureaucratization of medicine“. The journalist Sonia Mikich experienced what it means to get stuck in the cogwheels of modern medicine first hand. She talks about how she barely survived this experience. A very sick student has to pay for her expensive medication by herself only because her particular illness does not fit any of the predefined treatment plans. Also doctors and scientists report on a system, that orients itself more and more at economic frameworks. It is the individual who has to adapt to the system, rather than the system adapting to the needs of patients.